Wilberforce to Waitangi

The film “Wilberforce” is currently showing in New Zealand cinemas. This film shows the impact on British society ofthe revival led by Whitfield and Wesley in the 18th century. Leaders that emerged from this movement were the key to the abolition of slavery.

What many New Zealanders have not picked from this film is that the same people had a strong influence on the early development of New Zealand. At the time when the first organised migration to New Zealand was being planned, James Stephen was the permanent under secretary in the Colonial Office.

His father, also called James Stephen was a friend of William Wilberforce. The senior James Stephen was a member of the Clapham group and the lawyer who drafted the laws against slavery. His sister later married Wilberforce after his first wife had died.

The younger James Stephen joined to colonial office to have an influence over policies for slavery in the colonies. He later became concerned about the negative impacts of colonisation. European contact had led to the collapse or near extinction of some indigenous societies, so Stephen wanted to avoid a similar pattern in New Zealand.

James Stephen drafted the instructions that were given to William Hobson when was sent to New Zealand in 1840. Part of the instruction was as follows:

All dealings with the Aborigines for their Lands must be conducted on the same principles of sincerity, justice, and good faith as must govern your transactions with them for the recognition of Her Majesty's Sovereignty in the Islands. Nor is this all. They must not be permitted to enter into any Contracts in which they might be ignorant and unintentional authors of injuries to themselves. You will not, for example, purchase from them any Territory the retention of which by them would be essential, or highly conducive, to their own comfort, safety or subsistence. The acquisition of Land by the Crown for the future Settlement of British Subjects must be confined to such Districts as the Natives can alienate without distress or serious inconvenience to themselves. To secure the observance of this rule will be one of the first duties of their official protector.

As an outworking of these instructions, Hobson signed the Treaty of Waitangi with the Maori people. This covenant between the British Crown and the Maori people was unique in colonial history. Without the influence of James Stephen, there would have been no treaty and New Zealand would have had a very different history.

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